2002 Parma Challenge Cup
Radisson Hotel Middleburg Heights, OH June 7-9, 2002
(Click the thumbnail to see the full image)
Mark Daniels won a nice CD player - one of the many nice prizes raffled off. |
Saturday night many of the racers headed for the hotel bar for some post-race unwinding. Parma's Paul C. and "Big Al" posed here with a Marine officer in the bar. Is this the possible makings of a Team Parma recruiting poster? "Team Parma is looking for a few good men" ;-) |
Back to the track on Sunday morning, for the GTP class. Hey! What's Paul C. doing in that 40+ "Geezer" race? (not to worry - Paul & Steve filled in where needed to even out the heats - but didn't count). |
The Parma pits had several ace volunteer pit men helping out all weekend. With 3 cars per lane rotated every heat, there was always a full set of 8 cars being maintained in the pits during every heat! Here, Lou Pirro took a turn or two helping out in the busy pits. |
Al Rutti definately helped put the new Parma Turbo E.C. controllers to the durability test, and showing how Parma controllers also work with the thumb! |
4 qualifying heats for the 40+ GTP class, where it was again extremely hard to earn a spot in the main. |
Ben McGuire also was busy between his races helping out in the Parma pits. |
Alan Smith of Scalextric USA tried his hand on Sunday with the 1/24 GTP cars. Having had no practice prior to race time while busy with his booth Saturday, he didn't do too bad at all driving the bigger scale cars! |
More 40+ GTP racing as Jack Nickel and Jay Kisling battle while Steve Keopp fills in and keeps pace. |
The cars were rotated every heat during the qualifying rounds - 1 on the track, 1 on the track, and the 3rd in the pits. Nick M. and "Itch" helped out with the well-choreographed car swaps, along with several other volunteers. |
The simple yet efficient car rotation system made use of Parma car boxes, taped together and with a carry handle cord - to tote the sets of cars around the track between heats. |
Hours of testing was done by Paul C. on the Parma test track prior to the race to match the cars as closely as possible. The lap times were written on the bottom and the bodies juggled to ensure the closest possible set of cars for each lane. The markings on this set of 4.5" FCR cars were within .001 seconds of each other in testing. |
4.5" FCR NASCAR |
Junior Group 10 Slammer |
Group 10 4" NASCAR |
GTP Super 16-D |
I didn't get this racer's name (help?) - but he always had an unlit cigar in his mouth while driving. |
The hallway lounge areas provided for many discussions and impromtu meetings throughout the weekend. Andy Wasserman dropped by to check out the racing and visit while driving his spiffy new BMW from Chicago home to NY. |
Who could that be, racing Alan on the Scalextric Sport track??? Could it be none other then John Chorpening - aka "gorp" on the OWH 1/32 board? I do believe "gorp" was the first person to order the now-rare OWH T-Shirt. |
"gorp" provided a couple of fast Tweaker-equiped cars and grabbed my camera while Alan and I put in some hot laps. |
2002 Parma Challenge Cup Race Results
